ISSN 0036 0295, Russian Metallurgy (Metally), Vol. 2010, No. 6, pp. 544547. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2010.

. Original Russian Text M.V. Kolodkin, S.I. Zhulev, V.S. Dub, A.N. Romashkin, A.N. Malginov, 2009, published in Elektrometallurgiya, 2009, No. 8, pp. 2629.

CASTING AND SOLIDIFICATION OF STEEL

Choice of a Rational Scheme for Casting of a Forging Ingot for Producing Hollow Forgings1
M. V. Kolodkin, S. I. Zhulev, V. S. Dub, A. N. Romashkin, and A. N. Malginov
OAO Bummash, VolGTU, OAO NPO TsNIITMASh AbstractThe solidification of large ingots is simulated, and the results are confirmed in experiments. The application of cold tapped direct taper ingots is found to increase the ingot to product yield by 7% for the production of hollow billets and to decrease the degree of segregation heterogeneity in an ingot. The total car bon segregation in a cold tapped ingot is three times lower than that in a comparative ingot. DOI: 10.1134/S0036029510060169
1

OAO Bummash produces steel forgings of a wide range, namely, rings, disks, tubes, shafts, cubes, plates, and so on. The output of hollow forgings accounts for 30% of the total amount of products. The production of hollow forgings from standard ingots with a dense axial zone is known to be econom ically irrational, since the metal of the axial ingot zone is removed during piercing. Therefore, it is a challenging problem for this enterprise to increase the efficiency of the production of hollow forgings by changing the parameters of an initial ingot to increase the efficiency of using a metal. This problem can be solved by decreasing the vol ume of the top of an ingot and the motion of a shrink age hole to its central portion, which can be performed by cooling the upper part of an ingot with a cold top. A cold top must concentrate a shrinkage hole at the central portion of the ingot and provide a smaller diameter of the shrinkage hole in the cross section of the ingot as compared to the diameter of the axial zone removed during piercing. To decrease the costs of the introduction of pro ducing ingots of a new type, we used computer simu lation and the Crystal software package. In this pack age, the mathematical simulation of the dynamics of a temperature field and the formation of shrinkage defects during ingot solidification is based on a numerical solution of the equations of the Borisov Zhuravlev macroscopic solidification theory [1] under given conditions of heat removal from the ingot and the well known heat capacity and thermal conductiv ity of a certain steel grade at a given temperature. The algorithm of searching for solutions uses the finite dif ference method on a grid. The formation of crystalline zones in the volume of a solidifying metal was simu lated using an analysis of temperature fields and tem perature gradient fields [2, 3].

The simulation demonstrates that the location of a shrinkage hole in an ingot is most favorable when the relative volume of a cooled top part is 78%. The placement of the upper end of a mold on a tray pro vides casting of ingots with direct taper (broadened from top to bottom) and a shrinkage hole diameter that accounts for 2224% of the ingot diameter. When a mold is placed on a tray to form a reverse taper, the shrinkage hole diameter is 2327%. Figure 1 shows the assembly of the casting tool for ingots with a cooled upper part and direct and reverse taper and the simulated relative dimensions of the

1 The Russian version was not edited. Deceased.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for the assembling of casting tool and the results of simulating shrinkage defects for cold tapped ingots.

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shrinkage hole. It is seen that the version with a direct taper (broadened from top to bottom) is most rational among the two versions of casting of ingots with a cold top for the production of hollow forgings, since a shrinkage hole is mainly located in the axial zone in this case. To check the adequacy of the results of simulating ingot solidification, we cut an experimental direct taper 2070 kg ingot made of grade 1.2714 steel and cast it into a mold with a cold top (Fig. 2). The ladle sample metal composition during casting was as fol lows (wt %):
C Si Mn P S Cr Ni Mo V Cu

EO8A 178

0.55 0.35 0.73 0.019 0.005 1.06 1.52 0.48 0.09 0.25

The calculated and experimental dimensions of the shrinkage hole agree well with each other (Table 1). A replacement of a hot top by a cold top of a smaller volume changes the total ingot weight, which ensures its rapid solidification. Moreover, segregation pro cesses are less developed in rapid ingot solidification, which decreases the chemical heterogeneity of the ingot metal and increases the stability of the mechan ical properties of the end metal products along their length and cross section. To compare the chemical heterogeneities of the metals of a standard ingot and a cold tapped ingot, we analyzed the metal from cold tapped and hot tapped steel 38KhN3MFA ingots 1.7 and 1.53 t in weight, respectively. The hot tapped ingot contains clearly pronounced regions with positive and negative segregation in the top and bottom parts. The segregation in the cold tapped ingot is less pronounced (Fig. 3). The chemical heterogeneity in carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus was estimated on samples cut from tem pletes of axial plates in the ingots. Segregation coeffi cient ki for various elements was calculated by the for mula ki = ([i]min/max [i]l)/[i]l 100%, where [i]min/max is the minimum (for the calculation of negative segregation) and maximum (for the calcula tion of positive segregation) content of element i in the ingot metal (%) and [i]l is the content of element i in the ladle sample metal (%). The segregation coefficient of elements in the cold tapped ingot metal is lower than in the hot tapped ingot metal (Table 2). The total segregation coefficient of carbon in the cold tapped ingot is three times lower than in the comparative ingot. The results of computer simulation agree well with the actual dimensions of the shrinkage hole concen trated along the ingot axis, and the cold tapped ingot
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14 V

20 F

Fig. 2. Sections of a cold tapped direct taper ingot 2070 kg in weight.

metal exhibits higher chemical homogeneity as com pared to the metal of standard hot tapped ingots. Therefore, we implemented the production of cold
Table 1. Geometrical dimensions of a 2070 kg ingot and the dimensions of the shrinkage hole Relative Ingot volume of Maximum diame Shrinkage hole H/D taper, the top of ter of the shrinkage length, mm % the ingot, hole, mm % 1.8 10 8 calculated actual calculated actual 611 597 126 119

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KOLODKIN et al. (b)

0.35 0.41 0.39 0.38 0.37 0.016 0.011 0.35 0.38 0.39 0.017 0.016 0.018 0.011 0.010 0.012 0.34 0.34 0.018 0.019 0.013 0.014 0.34 0.014 0.34 0.013 0.015 0.008 0.009 0.008

0.014

0.015 0.009 0.013

0.009 0.008

0.37 0.36

0.37 0.36 0.34

0.016 0.015

0.012 0.011 0.010

0.34

0.34 0.014 0.33

0.013 0.012

0.009 0.008

Fig. 3. Distributions of the carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus contents in various horizons of a reverse taper ingot: (a) hot tapped ingot 1.7 t in weight and (b) cold tapped ingot 1.53 t in weight.

tapped direct taper ingots for the entire range of molds in our enterprise.

Table 2. Chemical heterogeneity of reverse taper steel KhN3MFA ingots Segregation coefficient, % Positive segregation carbon sulfur phosphorus Negative segregation carbon sulfur phosphorus carbon sulfur phosphorus 18.9 25.1 27.1 6.0 21.4 11.1 8.1 6.3 9.1 3.0 14.3 11.0 +10.8 +18.8 +18.0 +3.0 +7.1 0 A B

Using cold tapped forging ingots for the produc tion of hollow forgings, we improved the technical and economic indices due to an average increase in the ingot to product yield by 7% and saving of heat insu lating materials. Cold tapped ingots are characterized by high chemical homogeneity, and the assembly of the cast tool for these ingots is less laborious. Casting of ingots does not require a special purpose range of molds [4]. CONCLUSIONS We determined the parameters (geometry and ther mal operation of the top) of cold tapped forging ingots intended for the production of hollow forgings. To cast these ingots, one can use the same range of molds, which is also applied to cast topped ingots with a dense microstructure. Using cold tapped rather than hot tapped ingots and casting of an ingot into a direct taper mold, we were able to produce ingots with a shrinkage hole con centrated along the ingot axis. The use of a cold tap instead of a lined top decreases the total ingot weight, which decreases the solidification time and, corre spondingly, decreases the chemical heterogeneity of the ingot metal. Using cold tapped ingots, we increased the ingot to product yield for hollow forgings by 7%, saved the heat insulating materials of tops, and decreased the time it takes for casting tools to be prepared.
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Note: A stands for a hot tapped ingot 1.7 t in weight; B stands for a cold tapped ingot 1.53 t in weight.

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REFERENCES
1. V. A. Zhuravlev, Solidification of Alloys with Het erotransformations (NiTs Regulyarnaya i Khaot icheskaya Dinamika, Izhevsk, 2006) [in Russian]. 2. S. I. Zhulev, E. I. Buzinov, K. Yu. Bod, et al., Simula tion of the State of Stress in Steel Ingots during Solidi fication, Stal, No. 7, 2022 (2006). 3. V. P. Bagmutov and I. N. Zakharov, Mathematical Simulation of the Thermal Processes during the Solid

ification of a Large Steel Ingot, Stal, No. 3, 2833 (2006). 4. M. V. Kolodkin, Designing of Forging Ingots for some Types of Forgings in OAO Bummash, in Proceedings of the VIII Congress (Kuznets 2008) on the State, Prob lems, and Prospects of the Development of Forging Pressing Machine Building, ForgingStamping Manu facture, and Metal FormingBasis of the Machine Building Complex and the National Safety of Russia, Ryazan, Russia (OAO Tyazhpressmash, Ryazan, 2008), pp. 274277.

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